Newfield Reports Four New Wells; Two in Sand Creek

This might be old news to some folks, but Newfield Exploration recently issued a press release announcing the completion of four wells:

18267, Clear Creek State 1-36, 3,932 IP; with a 502 boe 30-day average
18122, Arkadios 1-18H, 1,686 IP; with a 457 boe day average
18284, Pittsburg 1-3H, 4,143 IP; with a 1,200 boe day average
18323, Sand Creek Federal 1-21H, 2,568 IP, with a 1,137 boe 30 day average

The Pittsburg and Sand Creek Federal are in the Sand Creek oil field; the Arkadios is in the Haystack Butte oil field; and, the Clear Creek State oil well is in the Westberg oil field, which is south of, and shares a border, with Sand Creek.

Again, with the new ways of determining IPs, it is becoming more and more difficult to know exactly how good these wells are. We will only really know when we get the yearly results.

But can we learn anything from Sand Creek?

Background:

Back in March, 2010, some folks were noting the horrendous decline rate of the Alice Federal 1-28H well (17758), also in Sand Creek. The decline rate issue is nothing new for Bakken wells. Its IP was 617, not bad by historical standards but not exciting by what we've seen in this boom in the Parshall. Worse, by the sixth month, this well was down to 80 barrels/day.

So, what can we learn from Sand Creek now that we've seen two wells come in with IPs of 1,000 to 4,000 boepd (depending on how one calculates IPs) compared to a well that is now producing only 80 bbls/day with an initial IP of 600?

I started to write what I thought we could learn from this, but I felt I was beginning to ramble, and so after quite a bit of writing, just deleted it all.

But this is what is is: the Sand Creek (1,137) well is only one mile due north of the Alice Federal (617); and, the Pittsburg (1,200) is only three miles north of the Sand Creek. The first full month of production for the Alice Federal was August, 2009. I assume the two new Sand Creek wells were completed within the last month or so.

Meanwhile, on another note, Newfield, in a press release, states that it expects its Williston Basin production to increase by 40% in 2010.